The map vividly illustrates the varied geography of the world, Nasa said, and "helps to make order from the apparent chaos of its complex surface".

It won't be all that long until scientists return to Ganymede. The European Space Agency is planning a mission to orbit the moon in 2032.

"The highly detailed, colourful map confirmed a number of outstanding scientific hypotheses regarding Ganymede’s geologic history, and also disproved others,” said Baerbel Lucchitta, a scientist who has worked on the geologic mapping of Ganymede since 1980.

"For example, the more detailed Galileo images showed that cryovolcanism, or the creation of volcanoes that erupt water and ice, is very rare on Ganymede."